$4.50 per day represents the average daily food budget for recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the US. Ron Shaich, Panera founder and CEO, and 26 members of Congress are taking on the SNAP Challenge which encourages people to live on the limited food budget for a week. Shaich quickly learned that he would have to load up on overly processed, carb-heavy foods and skip over meat, fruit and vegetables in order to stay within his budget.
Within the first few days of the SNAP Challenge, Shaich recognized the trials that many American’s in the program face on a daily basis:
“This isn’t going to be easy. In fact, it’s going to be incredibly hard. I haven’t even felt the first pangs of hunger, and I’m already gaining a whole new perspective into challenges that so many people in this country face in dealing with food insecurity — from the embarrassment of having to leave items at the register to the diligence and ongoing calculation required to constantly prioritize and rank every purchase and potential purchase, big and small”
Click below to learn more about SNAP’s impact:
Junior League of Minneapolis 